


The Kinship

by Fishykarp



Category: Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order (Video Game), Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Dathomir (Star Wars), Magic, Nightsister Zombies, Nightsisters (Star Wars), One Shot, The Mandalorian meets a Nightsister, Zombies, magick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:35:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22757896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fishykarp/pseuds/Fishykarp
Summary: ‘You expect me to search the galaxy for the home of this creature, and deliver it to a race of enemy sorcerers?’‘This is the way.’The Mandalorian finds a sorcerer. Maybe not the one that the child needs, but maybe the one that he does.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 105





	The Kinship

_‘You expect me to search the galaxy for the home of this creature, and deliver it to a race of enemy sorcerers?’_

_‘This is the way.’_

The planet of Dathomir was like death given life. The red hues of the sun stained the sky, illuminating a world of ruins and husks. A mournful silence only broken up by the sudden shrieks of monsters hiding in the mist.

This was it. This is where The Mandalorian would find the Jedi.

There was some sort of central complex. A crumbling fortress amid the villages and swamps. Like everything else on Dathomir, it was lifeless and crumbling. But here, in the mud and the dust, there was evidence of something more. Footprints in the outline of a boot. The corpse of a bane-back spider still not yet decomposed. Fresh blaster bolts.

The Child squirmed in his arms, and he couldn’t blame it. Everything about this place felt _wrong._ Many of corpses strewn throughout the village were _mummified,_ yet lay half-buried in mud as if they’d fallen in battle. They appeared to have been fighting an army of the same battle droids that had taken his parents. The Mandalorian noted with no small amount of pleasure that the casualties seemed to be heavily weighted towards the droids.

He followed a set of bootprints to the entrance of the fortress, a semi-circular clearing before a stairway into the building. Before he could weigh up the risks of entering, The Mandalorian’s decision was made for him. His attention was drawn behind him by a stream of green smoke from inside the fortress, to a series of cocoons hanging from the trees. They pulsed as if they were alive - an image not helped by their skin-and-bone makeup - and then exploded open from the bottom.

From each fell a single mummified corpse, like those from before. Except these ones _moved._ Each got up, their bodies bending at unnatural angles, and shrieked. Their bodies exuded the same green mist that brought them to life, if their current state could be considered life.

The Mandalorian was quick to realise that their shrieking was directed at him. Time to go.

He ran up the stairs, firing his blaster pistol haphazardly with one hand, while he made sure that The Child was secure in the other. A screech and a wet splat confirmed that he’d hit one of his targets.

Undeterred, the rest of the zombies surged up the stairs behind him. The stairway opened up into an antechamber connected to three separate hallways. The Mandalorian dropped two thermal detonators as he ran through the central passage, where the green smoke seemed to be coming from. Behind him, an explosion confirmed the destruction of more zombies, hopefully.

He stopped halfway through the hallway to catch his breath. At least he knew he’d found his sorcerers, but the armorer was also right about these ‘Jedi’ being enemies. Maybe he could still sort this out with them, if he followed that green smoke to its source.

The renewed sounds of shrieking behind him confirmed that he didn’t get all the zombies. He continued following the smoke, reaching another circular chamber. On the left side of the chamber, there lay a bed and a few bookshelves containing an assortment of books. On the right was a table, with a neatly-organised selection of various trinkets that The Mandalorian could only assume were mystical in nature.

In the centre of the chamber was a white-skinned woman in a red hood. Her eyes were green with smoke, same as the zombies, but she was undoubtedly alive. She stood behind a tall stool, gazing the ball of crystal that was producing the green smoke. Noticing The Mandalorian, she looked up.

“An armoured warrior comes to Dathomir.” The aged woman said. Maybe The Mandalorain was just imagining it, but he swore he could hear a second, deeper voice behind everything that she said. “Are you here to destroy us, like all those before you?”

“I ask the questions around here,” The Mandalorian replied, aiming his blaster pistol at the crystal ball. “Call off those creatures.”

The woman scowled, and didn’t move.

“Alright,” The Mandalorian said, “we do this the hard way.”

He gently set down The Child, and turned to face the undead. Six in total faced him, and he gunned down two before they were able to reach him. The remaining four barrelled into him, clambering over himself and each-other. He felt them tear into the Beskar as they pulled him downwards, but the metal did not yield.

He fired up his jetpack, soaring to the roof of the chamber. Still, the zombies clung onto him through the flames. He elbowed one clinging onto his leg, and shot it as it fell. Spinning around quickly was enough to dislodge two more zombies, and threw the final one off of him with little effort.

He fired one shot into each zombie, and returned to the ground. He turned to the crystal ball again, but was stunned to see that the woman wasn’t there.

“Very interesting.” Her voice, coming from behind him. “This child is more powerful in the Force than anything I’ve ever encountered.”

The Mandalorian whipped around to see the woman on one knee, looking the child in the eye. He pointed his pistol at her.

“Step away from it.” He said.

The woman stood up, arms raised, and then vanished into more green mist. The Mandalorian looked around frantically, finding the woman had returned to her original position behind the crystal ball.

“That child is why I’m here.” The Mandalorian said. “I’m looking to reunite it with its kind. I hoped I’d find it here, but you’re not one of these Jedi creatures I’ve been told about.”

The woman laughed. “The Jedi? Jedi isn’t a race, armoured one. It’s a code.”

_‘Mandalorian isn’t a race.’ The words echoed in his mind. ‘It’s a creed.”_

“You are right about one thing, though.” The woman said. “I am no Jedi. My people are the sisters of the night, and I am all that is left.”

“The battle droids outside...” The Mandalorian said.

“Slaughtered them all when I was but a child.” The woman replied. “I’m a clan of one, now.”

_‘You are a clan of two.’_

The Mandalorian holstered his blaster. “My people are called Mandalorians. Mandalorian is the only name I go by. They too were destroyed during that war.”

The woman before him softened. She waved her hand over the crystal ball, and the green smoke dispersed.

“Sister Merrin.” She replied, her voice no longer echoing. “I’m sorry to hear about your people.”

“As I’m sorry to hear about yours.”

There was a silence between them, just for a moment. A mutual understanding. A small puff of green mist surrounded Merrin, and it was as if an illusion had just dissipated. Merrin looked so _tired_ , and her robes were marred with dried mud. Similar illusions faded throughout the room, revealing it as it truly was.

The bed became an old mattress on the chamber floor, and the bookshelves revealed themselves to be a single poorly-built shelf containing three worn, ripped tomes.

The table still had trinkets but they numbered few. The rest of the table was taken up by scrunched up papers and at least four half-finished cups of what appeared to be coffee.

“My clan fought The Jedi. I was told that one led the massacre against us,” Merrin said, “having known one, I’m not so sure.”

The Mandalorian stared.

“The Jedi were keepers of peace. They were destroyed in the Clone Wars, same as us.” Merrin continued. “There were survivors, though. According to Cal, the one who toppled the Empire was a Jedi.”

“Cal?”

“A Jedi I know. A friend. If you’re looking for a Jedi, he’ll be here in a month to check up on me.”

“A month.” The Mandalorian said. “I can wait a month.”

“You can stay here, for now.” Merrin said. “Find a room in the fortress, we have room to spare.”

“Thank you.”

==================================================

The conversation with Cal Kestis went remarkably well. The aged Jedi accepted The Child into his care, though saw fit to leave it on Dathomir for time being. In a way, The Mandalorian was relieved. After so much time protecting the child personally, he didn’t know if he’d trust anybody else with its safety.

Again, the two were silent as they watched Cal’s ship take off. Until The Mandalorian spoke.

“Your people. Can you bring them back?”

“When you came here, you fought a few that I did.” Merrin said, giving a weak laugh. “In seriousness, our people are gone. Our tradition, and our knowledge died with the clan mother.”

“Maybe that doesn’t have to be the end.” The Mandalorian said. “Most of my people died a long time ago, but the rest of us retreated underground. We adopted new traditions, adapted to a different world. I might be the only one left standing, but I am still standing. My people don’t die until I do. This is the way.”

“This is the way.” Merrin echoed. “Your people continue to fascinate me, Mandalorian. I have much to learn from your continued survival if I am to rebuild the Nightsisters.”

“As I have much to learn about your magicks and your Force.” The Mandalorian replied.

“I’m staying here, by the way.” The Mandalorian continued. “The kid is safe here, and it’s peaceful.”

“I’m glad.” Merrin said. “It’s good to know that I’m not alone.”

And so they sat. Two members of dead peoples on a dead planet, given life.

**Author's Note:**

> Hoo, this was a fun one to write. I had the idea yesterday that it'd be really cool if The Mandalorian came across Merrin or some other Nightsister remnant in Season 2. After all, he is looking for a group of enemy sorcerers, and that description honestly fits the Nightsisters more than it does the Jedi. It feels like something the show would do, honestly.
> 
> I'm actually in love with this idea. I only planned to make this a one-shot, but I'll add more if people are interested.


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